You'll have to excuse Zak. There's a general slant on the forums and a lot of people don't really like a lot of LP's earlier material (as in pre-Minutes to Midnight earlier), especially Meteora. Some people don't really listen to Linkin Park anymore. Seeing as though you're new it's only fair to let you know. As for my opinion, I think the songs from Xero are...pretty bad. Wakefield isn't a great vocalist to be honest and the recording quality is really crappy, and while understandably so given their situation, it's still really bad quality. I like the era of the band being named Hybrid Theory moderately. I regard "She Couldn't" as one of the best unreleased LP songs from pre-HT, and I'm fond of most of the songs on Hybrid Theory EP.
Well, not necessarily. That really only represents a small amount of people who frequent the shoutbox. There's a lot more users to the LPA than just the shoutbox. I personally really like Hybrid Theory, and Meteora to a lesser degree. Meteora really isn't as bad as some users make it out to be. As for me, I never listen to the Xero stuff, because they're really quite shit. I do listen to the Hybrid Theory EP occasionally though, since it has some great tracks (it's pre-Hybrid Theory, so it counts).
Yeah, i agree here with Gibs. Hybrid Theory and especially Meteora arent that bad someone make 'em here In the right times, they are the right album But back to topic. I dont know much about the Xero Stuff tbh. But i really like the demos under the name Hybrid Theory. F.e. the Crawling demo with different lyrics and Mikes "rap" part before the second chorus kicks in. Or Untitled (beside the bridge, i dont really like Chesters vocals in this "raw" phase tbh.) There are more interesting and less poppy like the final version, which doesnt make it worse or better
I don't know about Xero - I mean, I like the verses in "Reading My Eyes" and some of the other miscellaneous demos (e.g. "Coal") that's really about it ... but I do like a number of the Hybrid Theory songs, particularly "And One", "She Couldn't" and "Dedicated"
Well, by the very nature of the shoutbox, anyone who uses it is more "vocal" than those in the community who don't.
I'm of the opinion that, sonically, 1996-1999 LP was more interesting than 2000-2006 LP. Doesn't necessarily mean they wrote better songs then.
I think Mike was kind of a better rapper - at least lyrically. But overall the band is much more proficient and sophisticated now.
I really like Hybrid Theory EP and it's atmosphere. I kinda like it better than Hybrid Theory. But that's about it. Reading my eyes, She couldn't are cool as well.
You got me there. I was just trying to let the guy know that there is a very upfront resistance to older Linkin Park. She Couldn't deserves an underground release dammit. It's so different from everything else from that period...and even up to 2007...fingerpicking...really mellow sound throughout...no heavy crushin' distortion, a bassline that doesn't follow the guitar (! [yes, I know that's by the nature of the guitar line but still]), etc.
I always wonder whether the label is to blame for this. I'm always very hesitant to say things like that, but seeing how un-diverse HT is (bar a few things, like CFTE and the piano in ITE), I always feel that the band were told that the album would never sell if they did anything outside of the box, or something along those lines. No songs without big power chords like She Couldn't, no rapped choruses like Step Up, no fast rapping like RME, no spacey outros like And One. I'm not saying pre-HT LP were creative geniuses, but I feel like they were forced to cut off all the "unnecessary" fat, and go for big hit after big hit. Yeah, this is a funny one for me. I appreciate what he's learned over the years, and I appreciate that I don't know a damn thing about rapping, but to my ears his rapping is the only thing that's actually gotten worse since the pre-HT era. Don't know why, but nothing off the last two albums in particular has wowed me. The rapping is my least favourite part of Welcome.
I always forget about Xero songs, and then I'm reminded of And One. Easily the darkest song the band has ever written as the lyrics really break beyond their usual interpretive limitations. I also really love the breakdowns from heavy guitars to soft guitars, not to mention the rather unorthodox structure for Xero.
The HT demos are too many so in this comment i'm going to write my opinion about Xero demos: -Rhinestone:Nothing special about it. -Reading My Eyes:Mike's rapping is really fast but Mark shows that he can't scream.Seriously,the bridge is just a bunch of "Aaaahh!Ahh!Ah!". -Fuse:This song has a good potential. -Stick'n Move:The worst one.
Occasionally I go back and listen to the Xero track just to remember what they sound like. But really, those aren't great songs and that's not because of the sound quality. I do enjoy the HT demos though, some of them have a nice twist that they've dropped in later version. Also, "She Couldn't" is great.
Xero/Hybrid Theory EP I like to say, maybe the best shit the band has ever put out. The band released darker material and some very interesting tracks. Also this was Mike at his technical best. Sure his flow now is at its peak but his rhyme patterns, delivery and charisma was here before the awkwardness of Meteora and The Rising Tied came in. Also, with a 4 minute song with a interesting structure and arguably Mike's most proficient rap verse (And One), dope punchlines (Fuse), triple time flow (Reading My Eyes and Esaul), R&B style (She Couldn't) and some storytelling (Carousel and Dedicated), the band really needs to take some inspiration from this stuff these days.